“There’s no problem with only a couple of eggs in your basket, if they are very, very good eggs”

Few people are willing to target carefully. I believe this is because they don’t really know what they want. Even within a defined scope of work, they will pursue jobs at almost any company.

When you are very good at what you do and confident about your prospects, and when you have high standards, I believe it’s best to select only a handful of places where you’d like to work. There are indeed risks in doing it this way, but I’ve yet to hear a good argument about why it’s better to go after many companies at once.

Translation: If you really want to work for ABC Co., and you have the skills, being targeted will actually help you in your job search by eliminating distractions and helping you focus all your time and energy into convincing ABC that you’re the worker they need.

Course, Nick says that something better might come along while you’re pursuing ABC. “If the two companies you have picked don’t work out, you will find that the people you meet in the course of doing your research will lead you to your next targets.”

This seems to have been what happened with Jamie Varon of TwitterShouldHireMe.com. She got a meeting with Twitter, and then approached by other companies for jobs. Weird.